Full results are not yet available from yesterday's Men's road race, but we do know that Canadians did not medal. Clara Hughes, winner of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the Games, was awarded one additional honour; she was the Canadian flagbearer for the Closing Ceremonies.

Tour of Qinghai Lake - China

Canadians made it onto the podium twice at this UCI 2.5 stage race in China. Carter Hovey (Canadian National) was second in the 172.5 kilometre 5th stage, and Dominique Perras (Flanders-iTeamnova.com) third in the 96 kilometre eighth and final stage. We do not have complete information, but Perras finished 14th overall, Martin St Laurent (Canadian National) was 20th or 21st, Alexandre Lavallee (Canadian National) 28th and Bruno Langlois (Canadian National) 76th (we do not have Carter Hovey's final placing at this time).

After seven days of riding a total of 600 kilometres and 12,000 vertical metres through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, 149 mountain bikers in the TransRockies Challenge, one of the toughest mountain bike races in the world, crossed the finish line in Canmore, Alberta yesterday. During those seven days, Team Adidas Fiat Rotwild with Andreas Strobel from Germany and Silvio Wieltschnig from Austria, who even suprised the organizers with some of their stage times, proved to be unbeatable. They won the race with a lead by 1 hour and 41 minutes in the overall rankings (30:06.10). Places two and three were sucessfully defended by the Canadian athletes Andreas Hestler and Matt Decore (Rocky Mtn-Crystal Decisions), both of Vancouver, British Columbia, with a total time of 31:47.13, and Matthew Patterson and Greg Reain (Global Xtreme TV / Gearsracing.com) of Barrie, Ontario 32:18.09), respectively. TransRockies' final stage took the riders 3,000 vertical metres along 78 kilometres of mostly double and single-track trails. The course featured some fun and fast sections at the Canmore Nordic Centre, former site of the Mountain Bike World Cup and the Olympic Winter Games, before dropping down to the finish line in downtown Canmore. Altogether, 29 teams in the Men, 5 teams in the Women, 16 teams in the Mixed, and 18 teams in the Master category completed the 7-stage-race from Fernie to Canmore.

"The reception in Canmore was incredible", Andi Strobel smiles."I felt like being in Alpe d'Huez. The locals turned our arrival into a big street festival. Real Mounties handed out our finisher medals, journalists and TV crews asked for interviews and children for autographs."That was my biggest success so far", Silvio Wieltschnig says."To win a stage race is very special." After all, the two of them had not expected to win so dominantly."We didn't know how strong the other teams really are and had a lot of respect", Strobel explains."But then we thought all or nothing and attacked on day two and three and achieved a major lead. And our advance position was set. But we never took it easy and fought every single day. Silvio and I were very fast on the uphill and walking sections - and there were many. On the downhills, we rode more cautiously. That's why we only had one puncture, no crashes and no material defects throughout the week." For Silvio Wieltschnig, who already participated in last year's TransRockies Challenge but became sick and thus had to quit the race, this year was - despite the good weather - much tougher."With Andi I could not rest a single second, because we are of the same strength and we were always going at a very high pace. But Andi was the best team mate I've ever had. We harmonized very well."

Mixed Division

Martin and Simone Hornegger (Adidas Martini Hölltrading) came in third on the last day, but kept their lead in the overall rankings with a delay of only 3 minutes to the second positioned American SoBe/Cannondale team of Martin and Karen Masson and thus captured the first place in the Mixed division with a cumulative time of 37 hours 31 minutes and 3 seconds. Martin and Karen Masson arrived with a total time of 38:28.31, local heroes John Gibson and Jean McAllister (Team Bikecafe) of Canmore won third overall with a time of 39:27.30. Horneggers' chain of bad luck continued until the last day. In addition to various punctures, which also held them up during the sixth and seventh stage, Simone broke her suspension fork and Martin his gear shift. So she had to ride the difficult single trails without suspension, and he had to complete over 70 kilometres riding on his big chain wheel. Despite all these mishaps, the Austrian couple had an overall lead time of 58 minutes when they reached the finish line in Canmore.

Women and Master Champions

Last year's Women champion, Christina Begy from Denver,Colorado, and her new team partner Louise Kobin, of San Jose, California (Team SPOT), were also victorious in 2003. The dominant girls, who won every single one of the seven stages and finished with a cumulative time of 40:20.30, were 8 hours and 26 minutes faster than the silver medallists Jeanie Godfrey and Valerie Thompson from Canmore, Alberta (48:46.54). Third place overall went to Canadians Kari Ferlatte and Katrina Monsour who had a total race time of 52:57.40.

With four stage wins and an overall lead by one hour, the Canadian Master team VELOMAG from Quebec, with 39 year old Michel Leblanc and 44 year old Gilles Morneau truly deserved the title TransRockies Champions 2003. They completed the week in a remarkable time of 35:29.15, which would have been top five ranking in the Men's division. The Canadian team of Tony Routley and Eric Crowe, both of Whistler, British Columbia, came in second with a total time of 36:30.41. Last year's Master's champions Maciek Slodyczka and Stan Trebunia won third this year with a finishing time of 37:33.04.

Impressive was the performance of Brett Wolfe, the one legged American cyclist from Seattle, Washington, who completed the event with a total time of 49:43.15 together with his partner Julene Mitchell of Santa Cruz, California. Not only did he finish the race, team ?Wolf with Damsel' ranked 9 th overall in the Mixed division!